System and method for utilization of device-independent scenes in a smart home environment

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are provided for implementing a device-independent scene in a home automation environment. One embodiment is a method comprising receiving information regarding a home-independent home automation scene, the information identifying a zone property and an identified zone type; identifying, in the designated home, a zone corresponding to the identified zone type; identifying at least one home automation device capable of affecting the zone property in the identified zone; for each of the identified devices, identifying a device state of the respective device that contributes to the zone property; storing a home-automation scene for the designated home, wherein the home-automation scene comprises information identifying the at least one identified devices and the respective identified device states of those devices; and in response to user selection of the stored home-automation scene, causing the at least one identified device to perform the respective identified actions.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 16/317,803, filed Jan. 14, 2019, which is a national stageapplication under 35 U.S.C. 371 of International Application No.PCT/US2017/046269, entitled SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR UTILIZATION OFDEVICE-INDEPENDENT SCENES IN A SMART HOME ENVIRONMENT, filed on Aug. 10,2017, which claims benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) from U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/377,206, filed Aug. 19, 2016,entitled “System and Method for Utilization of Device-Independent Scenesin a Smart Home Environment,” which is incorporated herein by referencein its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Environments containing a variety of devices and/or services that areremotely controllable have increased in number and complexity. Someexample devices include lighting, window shades, alarm systems, homeentertainment systems, houseplant and yard watering, heating,ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) controls, and the like. Homesare environments that have experienced such increases, and homescontaining these devices and/or services are sometimes referred to as“smart homes” or “automated homes.” To assist users in the use andconfiguration of these devices and/or services, scenes are created. Thescenes define a collection of devices and the states of the differentdevices. For example, one scene in a home may turn off some lights, setparticular lighting levels on other lights, and turn on the home theatersystem. Another scene may be used when the residents are away, and thelights may be turned on or off at certain specified periods of time. Inyet another scene, the front door security camera starts recordingwhenever the front doorbell or a motion sensor near the front door isactivated. Generally, the scenes are created at the time of installationof the devices and/or services by a professional installer. Homeautomation platforms control the devices according to the differentscene settings.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods described herein allow for the use of homeautomation scenes that are independent of particular home andindependent of particular device in those homes. According to exemplarysystems and methods, home automation scenes can be developed withoutregard to the layout or equipment available in any particular home, andthose scenes can then be adapted for use in particular homes withparticular configurations of devices.

In an exemplary method, (a) a home automation system associated with aparticular designated home receives information regarding ahome-independent home automation scene, where the information identifies(i) a zone property, and (ii) an identified zone type. The systemidentifies, in the designated home, a location corresponding to theidentified zone type. For example, a table may be provided during setupof the home automation system that identifies the zone type of each room(or other division) of the home. The system identifies, in thedesignated home, a plurality of automation devices capable of affectingthe zone property, which may also be referred to as a target state orzone target state, in the identified location. For example, the zoneproperty may have a parameter that indicates whether the zone propertyrelates to temperature, illumination, security, or the like. A table orother data stored for the designated home may associate each device witha corresponding parameter (e.g. automated lights or window shades may beassociated with an illumination parameter, and a heating/cooling systemmay be associated with a temperature parameter). Each device may also beassociated with one or more parameters indicating rooms (or other zones)in which the device is effective. For example, an automated lamp may beassociated with a single room (e.g. in which the lamp is located), whilea central heating unit may be associated with several rooms. For each ofthe identified devices, the system identifies an action of therespective device that contributes to the zone property or target state(such as an action of turning a light on or off, or opening or closing awindow shade). The system then stores a home-automation scene for thedesignated home, where the home-automation scene includes informationidentifying the plurality of identified devices and the respectiveidentified actions of those devices. In response to user selection ofthe stored home-automation scene, the home automation system causes theidentified devices to perform the respective identified actions.

In some embodiments, the steps described above are repeated for each ofa plurality of home-independent home automation scenes to configure thehome automation system for use of those scenes in a designated home. Insome embodiments, a home automation system operates to configure sceneson a room-by-room basis, configuring in turn each scene that correspondsto the respective room.

A further embodiment takes the form of a method comprising receiving arequest to activate a device-independent scene, the device-independentscene having a zone and a state; transmitting a discovery request to aplurality of home automation devices; receiving a plurality of discoveryresponses from a plurality of the home automation devices, each of thediscovery responses including a home automation device type andlocation; determining a set of home automation devices located with thezone and transmitting the set to a mapping database; receiving, from themapping database, a set of action instructions, wherein the actionscorrespond to implementing the requested state for the zone; andtransmitting to the respective home automation devices, the respectiveaction instructions, wherein each of the home automation devicesresponsively operates in accordance with the received instructions.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a home automation platform inaccordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of different zones in a home automationsystem in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 3 depicts a flow diagram, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 4 depicts an example method, in accordance with some embodiments.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) that may beemployed as a device and/or home automation platform in embodimentsdescribed herein.

FIG. 6 is an exemplary network entity that may be employed as a deviceand/or home automation platform in embodiments described herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Generally, a home automation platform allows a user to control andconfigure various devices within a home. Each of the devices iscommunicatively coupled with the home automation system, eitherwirelessly (e.g.; WiFi, Bluetooth, NFC, optically, and the like) orwired (e.g.; Ethernet, USB, and the like). The home automation platformis able to receive user inputs for user selected scenes, and providesoperational instructions to the devices to implement the selected scene.

The home automation platform is able to receive the user inputs througha user interface (UI). One example of a UI is a speech-based UI, which,in part, allows the user to interact with the home automation platformwith the user's voice (e.g., allows for speech-driven control of thedevice). For example, the user may interact with the home automationplatform by speaking an instruction to the speech-based UI associatedwith the home automated platform (e.g., embedded in the device,connected to the device), and based on the spoken instruction (e.g.,based on the words and/or phrases in the spoken instruction), the devicemay execute an action corresponding to the instruction. For example,based on the spoken instruction, the home automation platform mayexecute an action such as communicating with a device and/or a service,controlling a device and/or a service (e.g., transmitting controlcommands to a device and/or a service), configuring a device and/or aservice, connecting to and/or disconnecting from a device and/or aservice, receiving information, requesting information, transmittinginformation, transitioning a device to a target device state, and/or anyother suitable action. Other example UIs include a user interacting witha smart phone or computer application that is communicatively coupled tothe home automation platform or with a set of buttons on a controlpanel.

Some speech control devices, and specifically multi-user speech devicessuch as the Amazon Echo, are increasing in popularity for use insmart-home control. For example, in a smart-home, occupants in a homemay issue spoken commands to a speech control device (e.g., a multi-userspeech device such as the Amazon Echo® or the 4^(th) generation AppleTV® and/or to a personal device, such as a mobile phone) which may thenparse these commands and/or issue control messages over a network toconfigure smart home devices or other services into a desired state(e.g., turning lights on and/or off; playing movies, music, and/or orother content, etc.). Multi-user speech devices as home-automationcontrollers (smart-home hubs) may be increasing in popularity sincethese devices, for example, may provide a centralized, always-listening,whole-home speech-based UI that may be used any occupant at the home atany time. Moreover, in addition to UI functionality, these multi-userspeech devices may serve as a central point of control for connectingwith other devices in the home and/or cloud-based services.

Traditionally, developing different scenes has been a detailed processrequiring a professional technician to program the home automationplatform with technical details of each connected device and status ofeach device for the different scenes. The technical details may includedifferent operating modes, such as light intensity and/or color for alight bulb (e.g.; a scene related to brightening a room may require aPhillip Lighting light bulb be set to a brightness of “1.0” and a hue of:0xff68a9ef). In some embodiments, other semantically similar devicesmay also accomplish the overall desired state of brightening a room. Forexample, the results of the desired scene, a brightened room, may beaccomplished by a home automation platform issuing instructions to amotorized window blind to open the blinds on a window.

In contrast to a traditional device specific scene, a device-independentscene described at a high level is more flexible and robust. Forexample, if a home lighting device breaks and needs to be replaced, thetraditional device-specific scene would need to be updated by a user, orprofessional installer, to reflect that the home lighting device isnon-operational. However, in a device-independent scene, alternativedevices may be used to accomplish the end goal of the requested scene. Adevice-independent scene may be developed based on querying a mappingdatabase with all available devices and/or services and the requestedscene to receive all possible instructions to affect the scene. Thisallows for sharing of scene specifications from individual homeautomation platforms since scenes can adapt to the specific set ofdevices present at a new location and incorporation of new devices eachtime a scene is requested because the home automation platformdetermines all available devices each time a scene is requested.

Thus, it may be beneficial and desirable to specify scenes on a higherlevel, a level that is device independent, in which the overall statefor a given region in a home is defined, rather than hard-coded withspecific sets of instructions for individual devices and operations.Such a device-independent scene representation is adaptable to theaddition, removal, and malfunction of devices and is more flexible interms of devices available to achieve a scene's desired results.

Systems and methods disclosed herein may operate to create and implementdevice-independent scenes in terms of a zone, which is a region of thebuilding or home, and a desired state of the zone. When a scene isrequested, the home automation platform determines a set of devices orservices that are able to be controlled by the home automation platform,and queries a mapping database with the set of devices or services inthe requested zone and the requested state of the zone. The homeautomation platform receives a list of instructions from the mappingdatabase for each device or service in order effect the end state of therequested scene. The home automation platform provides the instructionsto each of the devices and services, and the devices and servicesoperate in accordance with the received instructions.

The mapping process is facilitated by a repository of data thatcorrelates how a particular high-level state (such as ‘brighter’,‘darker’, ‘warmer’, cooler', ‘secure’, ‘breezy’, and so forth) is ableto be mapped onto a wide range of specific device types and specificoperations on those types of devices. The mapping database may beimplemented using any store of data usable for performing the mappingfrom the device-independent scenes to device-specific instances andoperations.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of an example system including a homeautomation platform for device-independent scenes, in accordance withsome embodiments. The example system 100 includes a home automationplatform 102, a mapping database 104, home automation devices 106A-D,and a building 108. In some embodiments, the system 100 may includeother components not combined or included in those shown in FIG. 1(e.g., communications circuitry, a network gateway, a network interfacecontroller, a power supply, or a bus), or multiple instances of thecomponents shown in FIG. 1 . For the sake of simplicity, only one ofsome of the components are shown in FIG. 1 .

As shown in FIG. 1 , the system 100 may include any number of thedevices 106A-D, with 106A being a security camera, 106B being a speaker,106C being a television, and 106D being a home security system, althoughany number of different devices or services may be used. The devices106A-D are able to be discovered by and communicatively coupled to thehome automation platform 102. Each of the devices 106A-D is able to becontrolled by receiving operational instructions from the homeautomation platform 102.

The home automation platform 102 acts as a scene controller. Examplehome automation platforms that may be configured to perform theteachings of this disclosure include an Amazon Echo®, an ivee Voice, aGoogle Home®, a personal computer, and the like. The home automationplatform 102 is communicatively connected to the mapping database 104and is configured to query the mapping database 104 with a list ofavailable devices 106A-D and the desired state of the zone in order toobtain information used to implement the requested device-independentscene with specific device operational instructions.

As shown in FIG. 1 , the home automation platform 102 may be connectedto the devices 106A-D and the mapping database 104. The home automationplatform 102 may communicate wirelessly or through a wired connection tothe components of the system 100. For example, in some embodiments, thehome automation platform may wirelessly communicate with the device 106A(e.g., via Bluetooth) and 106B (e.g., via Wi-Fi), and/or the homeautomation platform 102 may communicate both wired and wirelessly (e.g.,wirelessly via a Wi-Fi connection to a home router, and wired via anEthernet cable to a modem to connect to the mapping database 104 locatedon a remote network) to the mapping database 104.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of different zones in a home automationsystem in accordance with some embodiments. The diagram 200 depicts ahome equipped with a home automation platform and various homeautomation devices and services throughout the home. In particular, thehome includes components from FIG. 1 , including the home automationplatform 102 in communication with the mapping database 104. The homehas a first floor with a kitchen 208C and a dining room 208D and asecond floor with a first bedroom 208A and a second bedroom 208B.Similar to the devices 106A-D, the home in the diagram 200 includesdevices 206A-E throughout the home, each of the devices 206A-E isconfigured to be communicatively coupled to the home automation platform102. The devices and services 206A-E include a camera 206A located inthe kitchen 208C, a smart door lock 206B located in the dining room208D, a smart window shade 206C and a light 206D located in the secondbedroom 208D, and a light 206-E located in the first bedroom 208A.

In some embodiments, the requested scene comprises informationidentifying both a zone and a state. A “zone” may also be referred to asa region of the home to which the scene is intended to apply. The zonesmay be listed as a character string and may be a single room (e.g.,‘bedroom’, such as Bedroom 1 208A), a set of rooms (e.g., ‘bedrooms’,such as both Bedroom 1 208A and Bedroom 2 208B; or ‘first floor’ such asthe Kitchen 208C and the Dining Room 208D), or the ‘whole home’ (e.g.,such as Bedroom 1 208A, Bedroom 2 208B, Kitchen 208C, and the DiningRoom 208D).

A “state” is the desired result which the user intends to apply to thezone. The state may similarly be expressed as a human-readable string,such as ‘dark,’ ‘light,’ ‘darker,’ ‘lighter,’ ‘secure’, and so forth.The scene may be expressed as “Zone: State”, for example, “Bedrooms:Dark” or “Home: Secure”, or “Dining Room: Warmer”.

Table 1 depicts data in a mapping database table in accordance with someembodiments.

TABLE 1 Device-State Mapping Database Device-Independent State DeviceType Action Parameter Light Philips Hue Lights On Light Serena ShadesRaise Light Lutron Smart Blinds Open Brighter Philips Hue LightsIncrease +0.25 Warmer Nest Thermostat Increase Temp 2.0 Degrees SecureAugust Door Lock Armed Secure Logitech Camera Recording Secure LutronMotion Armed Detector . . . . . . . . .

When a device-independent scene is activated, a mapping process isperformed by the home automation system to configure applicable devicesand services to the activated scene. The mapping database depicted inTable 1 is a relational database. The database includes adevice-independent state, a device type, an action for the device type,and optionally a device-operating parameter. The device-independentstate includes the names of allowable states in the device-independentscene specifications. Specific types of devices are related to thedevice-independent state. For example, as shown in Table 1, the specificdevices associated with the “light” state are Philips Hue Lights, SerenaShades, and Lutron Smart Blinds. The specific devices associated withthe “secure” state are August Door Locks, Logitech Cameras, and LutronMotion Detectors. The device associated with the “warmer” state is aNest thermostat. While the mapping database of Table 1 includes generalnames of device types, the names may also include specific modelnumbers, firmware updates, and the like.

The mapping database depicted in Table 1 also includes actioninstructions for the device type to affect the desired state for thescene. For example, to satisfy the device-independent state of “light”,the Philips Hue Lights should receive an “on” instruction, the SerenaShades should receive the “raise” instruction, and so on. Similar to thestate of “light”, the mapping database of Table 1 may also include a“dark” state, and the action for the Philips Hue Lights would be “Off”,the action for the Serena Shades would be “Lower”, and so on. The tablemaps the light-level desired state into specific sets of instructionsfor individual device types.

In some embodiments, the mapping process includes linking to externalinformation sources to determine the effectiveness of the device actionsin implementing the scene. For example, the mapping process may alsoinclude querying the sunrise and sunset times in the geographicallocation of the home. Provided the extra information about sunset, thehome automation system may be able to determine that lowering blindsafter sunset may not make a room darker, whereas lowering blinds duringthe day may make the room darker. In another embodiment, the externalinformation includes weather information, such as if it is sunny orovercast, in the geographical location of the home and deviceinstructions are dependent on the weather information.

In some embodiments, the actions are parameterized, such that theparameter data provides for additional parameters for the deviceinstructions. For example, the “brighter” state corresponds to an“increase” action for the Philips Hue Lights with a “+0.25” parameter.The “+0.25” parameter provides additional instructions for the magnitudeof brightness that the Philips Hue Lights should increase by to affectthe “brighter” state.

The mapping database of Table 1 is but one schema, as another mappingschema are also possible. For example, indirect mappings, such that thedevice-independent state of “Light” is first mapped to device categoriesthat might be impact the desired state, such as “Lights,” “Shades,” and“Blinds,” and then a separate table contains all known types of each ofthe categories.

FIG. 3 depicts a flow diagram in accordance with some embodiments. Inparticular, the FIG. 3 depicts the flow diagram 300 that includes a user302, the home automation platform 102, the devices 106A-D, and themapping database 104.

In the flow diagram 300, at 304 the user 302 requests to the homeautomation platform 102 a scene, that includes a zone Z and a state S,to be activated. While the flow diagram 300 depicts the user 302requesting the scene, the scene may be activated by a schedule or someother trigger, such as an event from a device 106A-D.

At 306, the home automation platform 102 commences a discovery of alldevices connected to the home network and produces a set of availabledevices D. To perform the discovery 306, the home automation platform102 transmits the discovery request 308 to each of the devices 106A-Dand receives a discovery response 310 from each of the devices 106A-D.The discovery response 310 may also include a location attributedescribing which region of the home the device is located. The locationattribute may be entered manually or may be determined automaticallyusing a discovery protocol. At 312, the home automation platform 102filters the set D to the devices 106A-D that are within the scene's zoneZ, resulting in the set D_(z) of devices 106A-D that are within the zoneZ.

At 314, the home automation platform 102 provides the mapping database104 with the set D_(z) and the requested state S. At 316, the mappingdatabase 104 matches the devices of the set D_(Z) with the requestedstate S and determines a set of tuples, one for each specific devicetype, corresponding action, and parameter, M={T_(S), A_(S), P_(S)},where T_(S) represents the specific device type for the state, A_(S)represents the action for that device type, and P_(S) represents theparameter for the operation, if present. At 318, the matching database104 provides the matched information to the home automation platform102. At 320, for each specific device D remaining in the set D_(Z), thedevice type of the device D is determined, called T_(d); for each tuplein the set of mapping tuples M, if T_(d)=T_(S), then invoke actionsA_(S) on device D providing parameters P_(S) by transmitting theinstructions to the respective device 106A-D at 322 and each device106A-D operates in accordance with the received instructions at 324.

In an example use case based on a combination of the embodimentsillustrated in the schematic diagram of FIG. 2 and the flow diagram ofFIG. 3 , a user activates a desired device-independent scene (304). Forexample, a user may request that “Bedroom 2” (BR2 208B of FIG. 2 ) bethe state of “dark”, with the character string of the scene as: “Bedroom2: Dark”. The home automation platform performs device discovery (306)and transmits to all devices 206A-E a discovery request (308). Thediscovery request may be transmitted by any means, such as Bluetooth,multicast-DNS, or other common discovery protocols. Each of the devices206A-E that received the discovery request provide a discovery response(310) to the home automation platform 102. The home automation platform102 compiles a set of all connected devices, and the set of availabledevices D includes the camera 206A, the smart door lock 206B, the smartwindow shades 206C and the lights 206D-E. The response may also includelocation information for each of the devices.

The home automation platform 102 filters (312) the set D to determinethe devices that are within the region of the zone “Bedroom 2” based onreceived location information, that results in the smart set D_(Z) thatincludes the window blinds 206C and the light 206D. At 314, the homeautomation platform 102 sends the set D_(Z) (having 206C and 206D) andthe requested state S (Dark), to the mapping database 104 to determinewhich devices are able to be operated to implement the requested scene.The mapping database 104 matches (316) the device types to actions inthe relational database and determines that the smart blinds 206C actionA_(S) is “Lower”, and the light 206D action A_(S) is “Off”. In thisexample use case, no parameters P_(S) are used. If additional devicesnot related to the state of “Dark” were in the set D_(Z), such as aceiling fan or a speaker, no actions would be returned for thosedevices. Each of the devices in D_(Z) are checked against the mappingdatabase 104, and a list of devices, instructions, and parameters forthe scene are provided to the home automation platform 102 (318). Thehome automation platform 102 then selects instructions (320) andprovides each device (322) with the operation instructions. In this usecase, the smart blinds 206C receive instructions to lower and the light206D receives instructions to turn off. The smart blinds 206C receivethe instructions and responsively lowers and the light 206D receivesinstructions and responsively turns off (324).

In the disclosed embodiments, the mapping database contains informationto translate from a device-independent state to a specific set ofoperations on a specific set of devices. Maintaining the mapping mayrequire human input, as a computer may not have information indicatingthat a sting denoting the action operation “On” and a string identifyinga device type “Philips Hue Lighting” is semantically a way to “light” aroom. Further, the strings representing device types are ever-expandingas new types of devices appear as new smart home devices aremanufactured.

In one embodiment, the mapping database is maintained by one or moreusers or organizations tasked with maintaining the database. Forexample, a vendor or a standards organization, or a third-party cloudservice may maintain the mapping database and update it regularly as newdevice types appear on the market. Some mapping databases may be vendorspecific, for example, Company A may add “Company A Device” complianttranslations to their database as part of their “Company A Device”certification process for vendors' new products; such a vendor-specificmapping database might be seen as a value-add to incentivize thepurchase of “Company A Device” compliant products and also provide valueto vendors in return for “Company A Device” licensing and certificationfees.

In another embodiment, the mapping database's contents are crowdsourced.In this method, users are encouraged to give “generic” names to theirscenes through a user interface they use to control their homeautomation. Such high-level scene names can be compared across homes,and common device types and operations are identified that sharehigh-level descriptors. For example, many users may choose the name“Warmer” for a scene, and their corresponding actions may be extractedand added to a mapping database to provide translation features to allusers. In this process, multiple users spread over many households areeffectively telling the system which devices should be used together,and are equivalent to each other.

In some embodiments, it is advantageous to store the mapping databaseinformation centrally, or remotely, so that it can be maintained andupdated. In such an embodiment, each home automation platform queries acloud-based mapping database each time a scene is activated. Thispermits new device type entries to be flexibly added, and all homes tobenefit from centralized, automatic updates to the mapping database. Insome embodiments, subsets or even the entire mapping database may becached locally within the home to speed up operations and minimize datatransfer.

In some embodiments, the zone name includes flexibility. The homeautomation platform requires devices within the zone that are able tooperate to implement the desired state. For example, to activate a scene“Keith's Office: Dark”, the home automation platform would need aresponse from a device in Keith's Office that is capable of affectingthe “Dark” state.

The flexibility in zone names is provided when the names for zones donot correspond exactly to the specific room a device is located. Someexamples include “Home” (which captures all devices in the house),“First Floor” (which captures devices located in rooms on the firstfloor), or “Bedrooms” (which captures “Sally's Bedroom,” “Bobby'sBedroom,” and “Master Bedroom”). The location information is stored suchthat each device does not have multiple hard-coded location attributesfor every possible combination of ways to refer to a location. In oneembodiment, a locations database is maintained, either separately or asa part of the matching database. The locations database maintainsmappings between high-level zone names (such as “Home,” “First Floor,”,or “Bedrooms”) and the specific per-room location attributes onindividual devices. The locations database is queried during locationfiltering (312) to include devices whose location in the locationsdatabase is included within the higher-level zone name.

In such an embodiment, based on the zone Z of the device-independentscene, all locations in the location database that correspond to zone Zare denoted as a set of valid locations: L={l₁, l₂, l₃, . . . } Then, Dis filtered to contain only those devices with location attributes thatmatch any location in the set L that corresponds to the zone Z, calledD_(Z). In other words, D_(Z) includes only those devices that arephysically present in the named zone. The data in the locations databasemay be generated automatically. For example, the high-level zone name“Home” includes all discoverable devices, and “Bedrooms” includes thecomplete set of location names that include the string “Bedroom”. Insome embodiments, the user is prompted to provide high-level zone namesthat the system is unable to determine by itself. For example, thesystem may present a question via a user interface to the userrequesting, “Which of the following locations are on the First Floor?”and create a new “First Floor” high-level zone name based on that.

In some embodiments, the mapping database (and locations database) arestored on the user's home network instead of a centralized cloud. Insome embodiments, the databases are explicitly maintained instead ofcrowd sourced. In some embodiments, a plurality of mapping databasesexists, with a separate mapping database for each device vendor. In someembodiments, the mapping database is a single universal mappingdatabase.

In one embodiment, the translation from device-independentspecifications to device-dependent actions, occurs each time a scene isactivated. The specialization allows for adoption of new devices by thescene each time it is run, and so there is no need to explicitly updatedevice lists or scene definitions. Such a process may be morecomputationally expensive, an alternative has the home automationplatform initialize a scene for the first time it is brought into thehome. In this embodiment, the scene specialization process would onlyoccur once unless explicitly re-run by the user, meaning that newdevices would not automatically be detected. Thus, the home automationdevice types and zones may be stored in a local storage cache for use insubsequent scene implementations.

In some embodiments, a user may not wish for a particular device or setof devices to be included in a scene, or may even desire for otherdevices, not explicitly captured by the scene, to be included in a givendevice-independent scene. In such an embodiment, a customized scenewhere users can forcibly include or exclude particular devices to thescene may be developed. For example, a user may wish to “darken” thebedroom by turning off the lights but wants to maintain the blinds opensuch that the room becomes light when the sun rises in the morning. Thecustomizations may be stored in a list of explicitly included andexcluded devices (and related operations for included devices) for eachdevice-independent scene. The lists are added to or removed from thefiltered device set (312) for each device-independent scene.

In another use case, device-independent scene states may be enabled bythe device-specific operations as listed in Table 2.

TABLE 2 Example Device-Specific Operations for Scene States. Device-Independent Scene State Example Device-Specific Operations LightLights.on( ), shades.open( ), blinds.raise( ) Dark Lights.off( ),shades.close( ), blinds.lower( ) Brighter Lights.brighten(+0.25),blinds.raise(0.25) Darker Lights.dim(−0.25), blinds.lower(0.25) SecureDoors.close( ), locks.enable( ), camera.on( ), motionDetector.on( ),alarm.arm( ) Warmer Thermostat.increase(2.0), registers.open( ),windows.close( ) Cooler Thermostat.decrease(2.0), registers.open( ),windows.close( ) Breezy Fan.on( ), window.open( ), hvac.shutOff( )

FIG. 4 depicts an example method, in accordance with an embodiment. Inparticular, FIG. 4 depicts the method 400 that includes the homeautomation platform receiving a request to activate a device-independentscene having a zone and a state at 402, the home automation platformtransmitting a discovery request to connected devices at 404, receivinga discovery response having device type and location information fromthe connected devices at 406, selecting devices within the zone at 408,transmitting to a mapping database a list of devices within the zone at410, receiving from the mapping database action instructions, whereinthe actions are to be performed by each of the respective devices at412, and transmitting to the devices, the respective action instructionsat 414.

FIG. 5 is a system diagram of an exemplary wireless/transmit receiveunit (WTRU) 502, which may be employed as a device and/or homeautomation platform in embodiments described herein. As shown in FIG. 5, the WTRU 502 may include a processor 518, a communication interface519 including a transceiver 520, a transmit/receive element 522, aspeaker/microphone 524, a keypad 526, a display/touchpad 528, anon-removable memory 530, a removable memory 532, a power source 534, aglobal positioning system (GPS) chipset 536, and sensors 538. It will beappreciated that the WTRU 502 may include any sub-combination of theforegoing elements while remaining consistent with an embodiment.

The processor 518 may be a general purpose processor, a special purposeprocessor, a conventional processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), aplurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in associationwith a DSP core, a controller, a microcontroller, Application SpecificIntegrated Circuits (ASICs), Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGAs)circuits, any other type of integrated circuit (IC), a state machine,and the like. The processor 518 may perform signal coding, dataprocessing, power control, input/output processing, and/or any otherfunctionality that enables the WTRU 502 to operate in a wirelessenvironment. The processor 518 may be coupled to the transceiver 520,which may be coupled to the transmit/receive element 522. While FIG. 5depicts the processor 518 and the transceiver 520 as separatecomponents, it will be appreciated that the processor 518 and thetransceiver 520 may be integrated together in an electronic package orchip.

The transmit/receive element 522 may be configured to transmit signalsto, or receive signals from, a base station over the air interface 516.For example, in one embodiment, the transmit/receive element 522 may bean antenna configured to transmit and/or receive RF signals. In anotherembodiment, the transmit/receive element 522 may be an emitter/detectorconfigured to transmit and/or receive IR, UV, or visible light signals,as examples. In yet another embodiment, the transmit/receive element 522may be configured to transmit and receive both RF and light signals. Itwill be appreciated that the transmit/receive element 522 may beconfigured to transmit and/or receive any combination of wirelesssignals.

In addition, although the transmit/receive element 522 is depicted inFIG. 5 as a single element, the WTRU 502 may include any number oftransmit/receive elements 522. More specifically, the WTRU 502 mayemploy MIMO technology. Thus, in one embodiment, the WTRU 502 mayinclude two or more transmit/receive elements 522 (e.g., multipleantennas) for transmitting and receiving wireless signals over the airinterface 516.

The transceiver 520 may be configured to modulate the signals that areto be transmitted by the transmit/receive element 522 and to demodulatethe signals that are received by the transmit/receive element 522. Asnoted above, the WTRU 502 may have multi-mode capabilities. Thus, thetransceiver 520 may include multiple transceivers for enabling the WTRU502 to communicate via multiple RATs, such as UTRA and IEEE 802.11, asexamples.

The processor 518 of the WTRU 502 may be coupled to, and may receiveuser input data from, the speaker/microphone 524, the keypad 526, and/orthe display/touchpad 528 (e.g., a liquid crystal display (LCD) displayunit or organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display unit). The processor518 may also output user data to the speaker/microphone 524, the keypad526, and/or the display/touchpad 528. In addition, the processor 518 mayaccess information from, and store data in, any type of suitable memory,such as the non-removable memory 530 and/or the removable memory 532.The non-removable memory 530 may include random-access memory (RAM),read-only memory (ROM), a hard disk, or any other type of memory storagedevice. The removable memory 532 may include a subscriber identitymodule (SIM) card, a memory stick, a secure digital (SD) memory card,and the like. In other embodiments, the processor 518 may accessinformation from, and store data in, memory that is not physicallylocated on the WTRU 502, such as on a server or a home computer (notshown).

The processor 518 may receive power from the power source 534, and maybe configured to distribute and/or control the power to the othercomponents in the WTRU 502. The power source 534 may be any suitabledevice for powering the WTRU 502. As examples, the power source 534 mayinclude one or more dry cell batteries (e.g., nickel-cadmium (NiCd),nickel-zinc (NiZn), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), lithium-ion (Li-ion),and the like), solar cells, fuel cells, and the like.

The processor 518 may also be coupled to the GPS chipset 536, which maybe configured to provide location information (e.g., longitude andlatitude) regarding the current location of the WTRU 502. In additionto, or in lieu of, the information from the GPS chipset 536, the WTRU502 may receive location information over the air interface 516 from abase station and/or determine its location based on the timing of thesignals being received from two or more nearby base stations. It will beappreciated that the WTRU 502 may acquire location information by way ofany suitable location-determination method while remaining consistentwith an embodiment.

The processor 518 may further be coupled to other peripherals 538, whichmay include one or more software and/or hardware modules that provideadditional features, functionality and/or wired or wirelessconnectivity. For example, the peripherals 538 may include sensors suchas an accelerometer, an e-compass, a satellite transceiver, a digitalcamera (for photographs or video), a universal serial bus (USB) port, avibration device, a television transceiver, a hands free headset, aBluetooth® module, a frequency modulated (FM) radio unit, a digitalmusic player, a media player, a video game player module, an Internetbrowser, and the like.

FIG. 6 depicts an exemplary network entity 690 that may be used inembodiments of the present disclosure, for example as an exemplarycommunications device, mapping database, and the like. As depicted inFIG. 6 , network entity 690 includes a communication interface 692, aprocessor 694, and non-transitory data storage 696, all of which arecommunicatively linked by a bus, network, or other communication path698.

Communication interface 692 may include one or more wired communicationinterfaces and/or one or more wireless-communication interfaces. Withrespect to wired communication, communication interface 692 may includeone or more interfaces such as Ethernet interfaces, as an example. Withrespect to wireless communication, communication interface 692 mayinclude components such as one or more antennae, one or moretransceivers/chipsets designed and configured for one or more types ofwireless (e.g., LTE) communication, and/or any other components deemedsuitable by those of skill in the relevant art. And further with respectto wireless communication, communication interface 692 may be equippedat a scale and with a configuration appropriate for acting on thenetwork side—as opposed to the client side—of wireless communications(e.g., LTE communications, Wi-Fi communications, and the like). Thus,communication interface 692 may include the appropriate equipment andcircuitry (perhaps including multiple transceivers) for serving multiplemobile stations, UEs, or other access terminals in a coverage area.

Processor 694 may include one or more processors of any type deemedsuitable by those of skill in the relevant art, some examples includinga general-purpose microprocessor and a dedicated DSP.

Data storage 696 may take the form of any non-transitorycomputer-readable medium or combination of such media, some examplesincluding flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), and random-access memory(RAM) to name but a few, as any one or more types of non-transitory datastorage deemed suitable by those of skill in the relevant art could beused. As depicted in FIG. 6 , data storage 696 contains programinstructions 697 executable by processor 694 for carrying out variouscombinations of the various network-entity functions described herein.

Although features and elements are described above in particularcombinations, one of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that eachfeature or element can be used alone or in any combination with theother features and elements. In addition, the methods described hereinmay be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmwareincorporated in a computer-readable medium for execution by a computeror processor. Examples of computer-readable storage media include, butare not limited to, a read only memory (ROM), a random access memory(RAM), a register, cache memory, semiconductor memory devices, magneticmedia such as internal hard disks and removable disks, magneto-opticalmedia, and optical media such as CD-ROM disks, and digital versatiledisks (DVDs). A processor in association with software may be used toimplement a radio frequency transceiver for use in a WTRU, UE, terminal,base station, RNC, or any host computer.

1. A method comprising: in response to activation of a scene, where thescene is associated with at least one zone property of a zone thatincludes at least one smart device: determining, based on environmentaldata, whether changing a device state of at least a first one of thesmart devices will affect the zone property; and in response to adetermination that changing the device state of the first one of thesmart devices will affect the zone property, causing the first one ofthe smart devices to change the device state.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the environmental data includes information regarding a currenttime of day.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the environmental dataincludes information regarding current weather conditions.
 4. The methodof claim 1, wherein the environmental data includes informationregarding a geographical location of the zone.
 5. The method of claim 1,further comprising, in response to the activation of the scene:determining whether changing a device state of at least a second one ofthe smart devices will affect the zone property; and in response to adetermination that changing the device state of the second one of thesmart devices will affect the zone property, causing the second one ofthe smart devices to change its device state.
 6. The method of claim 5,wherein the determination of whether changing a device state of thesecond one of the smart devices will affect the zone property isindependent of the environmental data.
 7. The method of claim 6, whereinthe second one of the smart devices is a light and the first one of thesmart devices is a window covering.
 8. The method of claim 1, whereinthe zone property is an illumination level of the zone, the first smartdevice is a window covering, and the environmental data includes dataindicative of an outdoor illumination level.
 9. The method of claim 1,wherein the environmental data is obtained through a link to an externaldata source.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the zone property is aproperty relating to a temperature of the zone.
 11. The method of claim1, wherein causing the first one of the smart devices to change thedevice state comprises transmitting action instructions to the first oneof the smart devices.
 12. The method of claim 1, wherein activation ofthe scene comprises receiving user input selectin the scene.
 13. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the environmental data comprises currentenvironmental data.
 14. A system comprising one or more processorsconfigured to perform at least: in response to activation of a scene,where the scene is associated with at least one zone property of a zonethat includes at least one smart device: determining, based onenvironmental data, whether changing a device state of at least a firstone of the smart devices will affect the zone property; and in responseto a determination that changing the device state of the first one ofthe smart devices will affect the zone property, causing the first oneof the smart devices to change the device state.
 15. The system of claim14, wherein the environmental data includes information regardingcurrent weather conditions.
 16. The system of claim 14, wherein theenvironmental data includes information regarding a geographicallocation of the zone.
 17. The system of claim 14, further comprising, inresponse to the activation of the scene: determining whether changing adevice state of at least a second one of the smart devices will affectthe zone property; and in response to a determination that changing thedevice state of the second one of the smart devices will affect the zoneproperty, causing the second one of the smart devices to change itsdevice state.
 18. The system of claim 14, wherein the zone property isan illumination level of the zone, the first smart device is a windowcovering, and the environmental data includes data indicative of anoutdoor illumination level.
 19. The system of claim 14, wherein the zoneproperty is a property relating to a temperature of the zone.
 20. Thesystem of claim 14, wherein causing the first one of the smart devicesto change the device state comprises transmitting action instructions tothe first one of the smart devices.